Chapter 7 is up! I might not get chapter 8 up till Friday, cuz I have a bunch of stuff going on tomorrow and Thursday, sorry! I'll make up for it, I promise. Enjoy this!

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Chapter 7: Weaselys

Hermione suddenly realized the Weaselys were supposed to get there that night. Where were they? As she and Harry walked into the pub, a roar of noise met them.

"Harry! Hermione!" Hermione saw a rush of red, and the breath was knocked out of her. It was, of course, the Weaselys. Mrs. Weasely stood back, and when her children were done, she stepped forward and gave each of them a loving hug.

"We missed you two so much at the Burrow this summer! That dratted Nile virus!" she stepped back to survey them. "Harry! You must have grown two inches! Do your robes still fit?" she chuckled and turned to Hermione. "Well, well, well, what have we here? My, you've changed young lady! Where's that bushy hair I remember? Pierced ears!?! And you've grown some too, though not very much up." She winked at Hermione, and the girl smiled, embarrassed.

Ron looked confused, but Fred and George roared with laughter. George looked pointedly at Hermione, which made her blush even more. Harry looked like he was trying not to laugh, and Ginny looked scandalized.

"I don't get it! What's so funny?" Ron tried to ask Fred.

"We'll fill you in later tonight," Fred said mysteriously, "on the wonders of women."

Hermione swatted Fred on the arm. "Don't you dare go giving him any ideas!"

"Not to fear, my good lady! Sir Fred is an honorable knight who would never take advantage of a pretty damsel." He bowed with a flourish, and Hermione laughed.

Ron announced he was famished ("what else is new?" Hermione muttered), so they all went into the restaurant. Hermione noticed Harry and Ginny holding hands. She decided maybe Ron wouldn't be the one distracting Harry after all.

They had a merry dinner, and after they all went upstairs. Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Ginny went to Harry's room. Ron would be staying there, and Ginny would be staying in Hermione's room. They talked late into the night about the happenings with You-Know-Who and the Death Eaters. The Aurors had not made much headway, but neither had the Dark side. They had been at a stalemate for almost a year now. Hermione also was congratulated on her Head Girl status.

"I get my own room, you know. It's off the Common Room, not the dorm stairs." She smiled.

"That's not fair! 'Course, if I got my own room, I wouldn't get to listen to Ron snore, and that would be a real shame." Harry grinned, and ducked as Ron threw a pillow at him.

"Oh, stop being immature, you two. You're practically adults now," Ginny pointed out. This sobered them. They looked at each other.

"Wow, Ron. We won't be at Hogwarts next year," Harry said, as if it were something he had just realized.

"Yeah….weird!" Ron grinned and threw his other pillow at Harry. They laughed.

Ginny pointedly turned to Hermione. "So, Hermione, have you decided what you'll do for your career yet?"

"Not really. I'm thinking of something along the lines of research…"

By this time the boys had stopped laughing and were listening. "Researching what?" Ron asked.

"Oh, I'm not sure, that's the problem. I could join the Ministry, or a private company. And then there are so many companies to choose, there's so many options!" she decided to change the subject. Her future was one thing she was completely unsure about, especially if Draco was involved.

They kept chatting, but soon Ginny decided she was tired, so the girls left for bed. Harry had noticed Hermione glancing at the neighboring room a lot, but had no idea why, so didn't say anything.

Early the next morning there was a pounding on the Ginny and Hermione's door. "Wake up!" someone kept shouting.

Hermione jerked awake and looked alarmed at Ginny. She had simply rolled over. Hermione sighed, got up, and cracked the door open.

It was jerked open wide, and Hermione squealed. "Fred! George! I'm not dressed!" she quickly reached behind her, grabbed her bathrobe, and wrapped it around her.

George waggled his eyebrows and winked at her. "I think you should take that off, ma'am. We could tell you had grown much better without it!" Fred guffawed as Hermione blushed furiously.

"Shut up!" Hermione was embarrassed at getting caught in her rather revealing pajamas. Her house was always so warm in the summer; she had bought some lingerie when out shopping with her friend. It was much more comfortable, and cooler, than her usual long-sleeves-and-pants pajamas.

By now the young men had moved on to Harry and Ron's room, and were banging furiously on the door. Harry, of course, was the one who answered it, this being a tradition of the twins that the other Weaselys had learned to sleep through.

As Fred and George ran back to their room, elated with their final success, Harry and Hermione slammed their doors simultaneously.

Hermione looked at the clock, and silently cursed the twins. It was 6 o'clock. She knew she would never get back to sleep, so slowly gathered her things and walked to the shower.

As she walked down the hallway, a hand pulled her inside a room. "What was all that banging?" Draco asked her.

"Fred and George."

"They are still that immature?"

"Some people never grow up. Besides, they wouldn't really be Fred and George without thier pranks." Hermione smiled.

"So are you going to be able to get away today?"

"Probably not. Everyone is going to want to hang out today." She sighed again.

"I miss you." She looked up into his eyes.

"I miss you, too." Her gaze fell to his lips as they moved closer to hers. Her eyes closed when they met, relaxing into his arms.

Draco loved the trust he felt radiating from Hermione whenever he kissed her. He held her in his arms, and she relaxed completely. It was only when he tried something new that she stiffened and pulled away. He would never be able to figure girls out. All Pansy ever wanted was what Hermione didn't, and vice versa.

As his thoughts turned back to the present, he heard someone calling Hermione's name in the hallway.

Hermione gasped. The door was open! She ran over and closed it right before Ginny passed. She leaned against the door and tried to slow her breathing. Draco always did that to her.

He walked over to her, and put his ear to the door. There wasn't anything. He slowly opened the door. "All clear. I'll talk to you soon," he whispered in her ear, and kissed it.

As Hermione slipped out the door she grabbed her shower stuff from the floor where she had dropped it.

When she descended to the restaurant, Fred, George, and Harry were already there. Ginny came over shortly, and asked Hermione where she had been.

"I was in the bathroom."

"I looked there. I didn't see you." Ginny's eyes were questioning.

"I was there. You must have just missed me." Hermione said this very firmly. Ginny raised her eyebrows but said no more.

Ron came down with Mrs. Weasely around 8. They spent the day similarly to the way Harry and Hermione had spent theirs the previous day.

Hermione knew she would never be able to get away. Ginny had latched on to her because Ron and Harry had been talking Quidditch all morning. Ron was trying to convince Harry that if he was going to try out for a professional team, he needed to get a Quicksilver broom. Harry was putting up feeble arguments, but flatly refused because he said he "didn't want to waste money."

Later that evening, after another rather raucous meal, Harry and Ginny disappeared. Hermione looked knowingly at Ron. They were still great friends, even though the romance thing had never worked out between them.

The two spent the evening with Fred and George, who, as Ron had mentioned in his letter, had discovered a few new things for their joke shop, and seemed to want to test them out. Since the twins were now adults, they could do magic. They spent the evening pranking unsuspecting customers, until Tom came over and asked them to stop scaring away people. The foursome then moved upstairs, to Fred and George's room number 20. The played a few games of Exploding Snap, the twins commenting constantly on Hermione's "growth spurt." Eventually Hermione started ignoring it. The twins then got more graphic, and she decided it was time to go. So with a last yell of "Shut up!" she stormed out of the room, leaving the boys laughing like maniacs behind her.' Hermione wasn't really mad. She had had to endure catcalls all summer, especially when she went to the beach. Hermione grimaced, remembering one especially disturbing run-in with some men. The ringleader and some friends had followed her and two of her friends around, until they reached a secluded area that was deserted. The girls had not bothered to put on cover-ups over their bikinis, and the leader had gone straight for Hermione. The girls had screamed, but the young men had cornered them very well, and there was nowhere to run. Luckily, a lifeguard on his break heard the scream and came over. He chased the guys away with the threat of the police, and made sure the girls were okay. They were shaken, but otherwise unscathed. The men had done no damage, but Hermione still shuddered thinking of what could, and probably would, have happened if it wasn't for that lifeguard.

She supposed this was why she was so skittish with Draco. It reminded her of the man reaching towards her, a gleam in his eye. She had no idea why, since the situation was as different as possible.

When Hermione entered her room, Ginny was already asleep. She tiptoed over to her bed, slipped into her pajamas, and went to sleep.

In the morning Harry came and knocked on their door. Ginny answered it, and immediately left, leaving the door open. Hermione rolled over, but couldn't go back to sleep with the noise from downstairs. She got up and closed the door, but knew it was no good trying to go back to sleep.

Seeing as the next day they would be going to King's Cross, Hermione decided to pack as much as she could that day. After she threw on a blue halter-top and a jean skirt, she packed all the rest of her clothes except the ones for the next day into her trunk. She did her make-up and went out into the hallway. Ron's and the twins' doors were still closed, she noticed, as she walked towards Room 17. She knocked lightly, but just then Ron opened his door.

"What are you doing?" he asked her, puzzled.

"Oh, woops! Wrong door!" she smiled brightly and walked downstairs with Ron, glancing back apologetically at Draco looking out his door. He smiled and winked, and closed his door again. Hermione silently cursed Ron as she looked at the slightly hurt look on Draco's face through the smile.